Happy Birthday to the Gold Coast Light Rail, it’s officially turned five years old today!

The G:link took its first journey on Sunday 20 July 2014 from Broadbeach South to the Gold Coast University Hospital, changing how people on the Gold Coast travel forever.

Member for Gaven Meaghan Scanlon said more than 80,000 passengers jumped on board G:link on that day for the very first time.

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“Since that first day of service, more than 42 million passengers have been welcomed aboard the ‘G’.

“G:link has been the star performer of south east Queensland’s public transport, driven patronage growth of 50 per cent across the entire on the Gold Coast public transport network.

“The numbers of people catching trams continue to climb too, with more than 10.74 million passenger trips taken in 2018/19,” Ms Scanlon said.

Transport and Main Roads Mark Bailey said the light rail’s success is regularly cited by Australia’s urban planners as an example of how to successfully deliver transformative projects in growing cities.

“The Gold Coast is Australia’s sixth largest city and one of its most beloved holiday destinations.

“It’s got a unique character unlike anywhere else and, five years on, its trams are an unmissable part of its identity and one of the things people love about the place.

“Light rail’s success is in many ways the foundation of south east Queensland success in terms of people returning to public transport.

“We’ve seen record patronage in the south east on our buses, trains, ferries and trams, and light rail can take much of the credit for that,” Mr Bailey said.

GoldlinQ Chairman John Witheriff said it’s rewarding to reach the five year milestone.

“In 2011 GoldlinQ was awarded the contract to design and construct the Gold Coast light and to operate the system for 15 years.

“Having reached five years of operations, I’m very proud of the entire G:link team and the exceptionally high levels of services and system performance we have achieved.

“When it comes to light rail the people of the Gold Coast have voted with their feet and close to 900,000 passengers now use the tram on average each month,” Mr Witheriff said.

More G:link Five-Year Fast Facts:

Trams have travelled more than 7 million kilometres since testing begun in late 2013

Each of the 18 trams now travels about 100,000km per year

More than 42.1 million passenger trips have been taken to date

The busiest days in the system’s history were during GC2018 with more than 100,000 passengers per day

During early works and construction of Stage 1, more than $700 million was spent with local businesses and suppliers

During Stage 2 construction an additional $200 million was spent with local contractors

The system was also built by locals with an average of 90 per cent of construction workers on both stages coming from the Gold Coast and South East Queensland

G:link operations currently provides more than 200 full-time local jobs with roles including LRV operator, controller, technicians and customer service officers

Busiest stations in 2018-19 were Cavill Avenue with (1.67 million boardings) followed by Broadbeach South (1.49 million), Southport (1.1 million), Helensvale (1.09 million) and Gold Coast University Hospital Station (900,000).

G:link’s most recent passenger satisfaction survey found 79 per cent or passengers were Gold Coast residents with 11 per cent visitors from Australia and 10 per cent international visitors

Passengers that completed the survey scored G:link 93.6 per cent for reliability, 89 per cent for safety and security and 89.5 per cent for ease of use.

Monique started with 1029 Hot Tomato as part of the 1029er street team back in 2016. While she still performs a live cross or two, she now runs with Hot Tomato’s pack of newshounds a couple desks down. She’ll be bringing you the latest in Gold Coast news, weather, traffic and more every day. The news doesn’t sleep, and neither does Mon! If she’s not at the desk, in the booth or on the streets reporting – she’s enjoying all the Gold Coast lifestyle has to offer, and loving every minute of it.

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